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This woman speaks Korean better than you | ||
Tags: Native Fluency | Korean | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 9 of 19 09 February 2012 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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British student has tongue lengthened to speak Korean
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Northernlights Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4676 days ago 73 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 10 of 19 09 February 2012 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Having read the article it sounds as if she had tongue tie, the condition usually corrected soon after birth. I had originally envisaged something more invasive and was wondering what sort of surgeon would do that. Operating on tongue tie is good though I'd have thought, it's just a little odd hers was left till she was a teenager. Typical of the British press to present everyday things in such a 'shocking' way. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leighbee Newbie United States Joined 4743 days ago 5 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* | Message 11 of 19 17 February 2012 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh wow! This girl lives in the next town over!
And I think one of her relatives is my teacher. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5426 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 19 27 February 2012 at 7:59am | IP Logged | |||||
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She doesn't speak Korean better than I.
She speaks pretty well though. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 13 of 19 29 February 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged | |||||
I like how she describes that the feeling of learning Korean was like falling in love for the first time. I think that probably explains her achievement and it's a good thing to keep in mind when studying languages.
Why don't we read that kind of statement about people from other language families who speak Indo-European languages well more often? Maybe because there are many of them who do and we're so lingocentric that we don't realise how difficult our own language can be? And by the way, what does being white have to do with anything? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6703 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 14 of 19 29 February 2012 at 3:43am | IP Logged | |||||
Possibly because, as native Indo-European-language speakers, it might come off as a bit patronizing to cheer on someone speaking one of 'our' languages. At the same time, for those of us coming from the IE sphere, Asian languages are among the hardest, and are an aspiration and challenge for many of us 'white' (Western) folk. When Iron Fist complements these people, I get the feeling there's the undertone of "I wish I could do that," (since he studies both Japanese and Korean) rather than any lingocentric notions. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 15 of 19 29 February 2012 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
Right. Go talk to an Asian person on the bus and say "wow, you speak our language very well" and see how they react. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 16 of 19 01 March 2012 at 9:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
True, but maybe complimenting a stranger on the bus on their language skills isn't the best idea. Who knows, the person might have lived in your country for 20 years or so and if he/she gets those compliments just because of the way he/she looks that would probably just make them feel like an outsider (especially if you say "our" language ;)). And from what I read many white people in Korea feel that way when they're complimented for the 1000th time that they speak Korean well (and eat Kimchi), even if they lived in the country for a long time already. That's why I questioned the "white". But yes, I get that Iron Fist probably meant that it's an impressive achievement for someone who didn't grow up or live in a Korean-speaking environment and that it's said from a personal perspective because he knows that learning Korean is difficult. I just wanted to add that there are many people who do achieve such things, which doesn't take away from the achievement, but puts it into perspective. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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